The Syracuse University senior lacrosse player says he is spending most of fall ball practice with the Orange playing midfield, a position he moved to last season after previously playing attack.

The Orange lost two starting attackmen from last season’s team in Tommy Palasek and Tim Desko, both of whom completed their eligibility. Marasco, who wears the team’s power jersey (No. 22), could easily slide back into his old role on attack.

For now, that’s not happening. At least not yet.

“I’ve been playing more midfield right now,” Marasco said before a recent practice. "Little bit of both, but more midfield. I’ve gone back there (to attack) a couple of times, done some dodges and worked with it. They’re trying to figure things out right now.”

Head coach John Desko said he retains the option of using Marasco at attack. He said matchups dictate how best to use Marasco, who had 12 goals and 19 assists last year but connected on just 18.2 percent of his shots. Marasco was a second-team All-Big East Conference selection in 2012.

“A lot of it depends on kind of who steps up in the midfield,” said Desko, “because when you get JoJo up top, he’s always going to get the pole. If you’ve got two good middies around him, then they get the short sticks and can create a lot of offense going against the short sticks. If you put JoJo down below (at attack) and if he gets nullified by a big defenseman, now you’re taking another less experienced middie up top who will get the pole.

“Maybe we’ll mix him up. We’ll see.”

Getting more scoring and creating some fear by the midfield is a priority for the Orange. Who exactly in that unit puts the fear of one of the Powell brothers in the throats of opposing defenses?

A year ago, Syracuse had plenty of growing pains as a number of young players cut their teeth on the college game. Desko said he believes he’s got some players at midfield who can beat their defenders with dodges up top.

Desko said midfielders Hakeem Lecky and Henry Schoonmaker are “very hard to cover.” He said both need to continue working on their decision making process and shooting percentage. He said Scott Loy is coming into his own. The Orange have a senior group of Ryan Barber, Luke Cometti and Matt Pratt who are used to run a specific offense. And the Orange also uses Billy Ward and Kevin Rice, who come in as midfielders but dodge as attackers.

Marasco is a piece of the midfield puzzle. Whether the Orange has the ability to dodge and score from the midfield is part of the fall ball process.

“Time will tell,” Desko said. “I think so. They’ve just got to step up and do it.”